Francis COTES, R.A
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fRANCIS COTES, R.A. (London 1726 - Richmond 1770) Portrait of Maria Walpole, Countess Waldegrave, Later H.R.H. Duchess of Gloucester and Edinburgh (1736-1807) signed and dated 'F Cotes pxt./ 1765' (upper left) oil on canvas 108.5 x 136 cm (42¾ x 53½ in) Provenance: The sitter; by descent to her son H.H. William, Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh (1776-1834); bequeathed to his wife, H.R.H. Mary, Duchess of Gloucester and Edinburgh (1776-1857), daughter of George III; by descent to her nephew, Prince George, 2nd Duke of Cambridge (1819-1904); thence by descent, sale Bonham’s, London, 8 December 2004, lot 59; where purchased by the previous owner. Literature: Corey Piper, ‘A Contribution to the Iconography of Maria Walpole (1736-1807): A Portrait by Nathaniel Dance (1748-1827)’ in The British Art Journal, Volume XII, No. 2, 2011, p. 12 (illustrated). ET AGAINST A ROMANTICISED BACKGROUND, Maria Walpole sits stately and luxuriant, decked out in a rich white and gold dress with a pink gown. Her posture is open and confident, her gaze inviting and assured. Her delicately pale features, bathed in a soft light, lend her an air of elegance and Sunblemished beauty. In the slender fingers of her left hand she holds an early, six double course guitar. Of particular note is the exceptional detail given over to her dress. Francis Cotes excelled in representing costumes, which is superbly illustrated in the folds, reflections and differing textures of Maria’s garments. The present painting is typical of Cotes’ portraits of the beautiful and fashionable ladies of English high society. In his Portrait of Alice Countess of Shipbrook, see figure 1, his subject is again posed with a musical instrument, a reference to musical ability, considered to be a ladylike quality. In these two works and Elizabeth Lady Jones, see figure 2, the sitters are set against a landscape background, an allusion to the great estates from which they come. In all three works Cotes’ skill as a painter of drapery is in evidence, and the luxury he conveys naturally reflects the affluence of his sitters. Described as ‘beauty itself’ by her uncle Horace Walpole (1717- 1797), Maria Walpole was one of the great icons of the mid-eighteenth century, renowned for her good looks and lively wit.¹ Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689-1762) wrote of her in 1759, ‘I am not surprised at Lady Waldegrave’s good fortune. Beauty has a large prerogative’.² Indeed, her rise from illegitimate daughter to attaining the title, Her Royal Highness Duchess of Gloucester and Edinburgh, speaks of a remarkable and eventful life story, ‘who epitomized [sic] the often fractious vicissitudes within the court of George III’.³ ¹ Letter from Horace Walpole to Sir Horace Mann, Strawberry Hill, 9th September 1758. Francis Cotes, R.A., Portrait of Alice Countess of Shipbrook, ² Letter from the Right Honourable Lady Mary Wortley Montagu to the Countess of Bute, Private Collection (Figure 1 ) 24th June 1759. ³ Piper, C., 'A Contribution to the Iconography of Maria Walpole (1736-1807): A Portrait by Nathaniel Dance (1748-1827)' in The British Art Journal, Volume XII, No. 2, 2011, p.9 Francis Cotes, R.A., Elizabeth Lady Jones, 1769, Francis Cotes, R.A., Maria Countess of Coventry (1773-1760), 1751, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide (Figure 2) National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin (Figure 3) Maria was born out of wedlock to Sir Edward Walpole (1706-1784) governor to the future George III (1738-1820). The couple married in and his mistress Dorothy Clement, a milliner of humble origins from May 1759 at Maria’s father’s house in Pall Mall, after which she acquired Darlington. Sir Edward’s father, Maria’s grandfather, was Sir Robert the title Countess Waldegrave. Twenty-one years her senior, the marriage Walpole (1676-1745), considered to be the first Prime Minister of Great was a surprising success and sealed the twenty-three year old’s status as Britain, although the title did not formally exist then. Maria Walpole a leading society figure in London. The couple had three daughters, was brought up with her brother and two sisters at the family home at Elizabeth Laura (1760-1816), Charlotte Maria (1761-1808) and Anna Englefield Green in Surrey. Her father led a retiring life in the country Horatia (1762-1801), who are famously depicted in Sir Joshua Reynolds’ and, on coming of age, the girls’ introduction to society was left to their (1723-1792) (see inventory) celebrated painting, The Ladies Waldegrave, uncle Horace Walpole. Maria emerged as rival to the infamous society which Horace Walpole commissioned. belle Maria Gunning, Countess of Coventry (1733-1760), whom Cotes Sadly, James Waldegrave died of smallpox four years later in April also painted (fig. 3). Equally celebrated for her beauty, Gunning resolved 1763 at his house in Albermarle Street. At the time, the Countess was to strike up a great alliance with Maria, prompting Horace Walpole to convinced that she was pregnant with the Earl’s son but by August she remark that Lady Coventry, ‘has made a friendship with my charming was forced to concede otherwise, and surrendered her husband’s signet niece, to disguise her jealousy of the new Countess’s beauty’.⁴ The two ring to her brother-in-law, recognizing him as the 3rd Earl Waldegrave. ladies were seldom seen apart, cementing each other’s position as the Horace Walpole described his niece’s reaction to becoming a widow, epicentre of fashionable society to the extent that, according to Horace writing ‘She cried for two days to such a degree, that if she had been a Walpole, they were mobbed in the Park by the admiring public. Horace fountain it must have stopped. Till yesterday she scarce eat enough to Walpole was so captivated by these women that at a dinner at which they keep alive and looks accordingly’.⁶ A painting by Thomas Gainsborough were both present, along with the Duchesses of Hamilton and Richmond (1727-1788) depicts Maria arrayed in mourning dress (fig. 4). Sombre in and Lady Ailesbury, he commented, ‘A thousand years hence, when I tone compared to the exuberance of the present portrait, Gainsborough’s begin to grow old, if that can ever be, I shall tell of that event, and tell painting depicts Maria wearing a black mourning dress, as required by young people how much handsomer the women of my time were than convention. However, she retains a graceful allure and her hairstyle, they will be then’.⁵ jewellery, and other details of dress reflect ‘the young widow’s status as an Horace took it upon himself to arrange Maria’s marriage. He acknowledged beauty at the forefront of current fashion and as someone successfully introduced her to James Waldegrave, 2nd Earl Waldegrave obviously conscious of her position in society’.⁷ (1715-1763), a prominent member of George II’s (1683-1760) court and Maria was left a jointure of £1,000 per annum and charged with the ⁴ Letter from Horace Walpole to George Montagu, Esq., 2nd June 1759. ⁶ Letter from Horace Walpole to George Montagu, 14 April 1763. ⁵ Ibid. ⁷ Piper, p.12. daughters were reaching a marriageable age. They were highly sought after and Maria occupied herself by supervising potential suitors. By 1780, the royal couple’s relationship began to deteriorate. The Duke embarked on an affair with the Duchess’s lady of the bedchamber, Lady Almeria Carpenter (1752-1809), by whom he had a daughter.⁹ By the 1790s, Prince William and Maria had virtually separated, largely facilitated by a dispute over their daughter’s education. In 1805, the Duke of Gloucester died. Maria then moved to Oxford Lodge, Brompton Road, where she died two years later at the age of seventy-one. Portrait of Maria Walpole, Countess Waldegrave, Later H. R. H. Duchess of Gloucester and Edinburgh was painted two years after the death of her first husband, James Waldegrave. At the age of twenty-nine, she remains elegant and formidable. Unlike in Gainsborough’s painting she is no longer in mourning. Instead the twenty-nine year-old is portrayed ‘if not as “a maiden”, at least as a young, newly marriageable woman, still possessing considerable charm and beauty’.¹⁰ It is no surprise that, as anticipated by her uncle, she was soon to find another suitor, marrying the Duke of Gloucester a year after this portrait. Cotes was the eldest child of Robert Cotes and brother of Samuel Cotes (1734-1818), a painter in miniature. He initially concentrated on portraits in pastel and crayon, under the tutelage of George Knapton (1698-1778). He was also an admirer of the Venetian artist Rosalba Carriera (1675-1757), an accomplished and popular Venetian Rococo painter, best known for her pastel work. Her example no doubt helped Cotes’ early work, although he employed stronger tones and bolder lines. Cotes established himself as a highly fashionable painter, particularly after his crayon portraits of the Gunning sisters were frequently engraved, Thomas Gainsborough R.A., Portrait of Maria Walpole, Countess which enabled his work to reach a wider audience and thus gain much Waldegrave, Later Duchess of Gloucester, in a Black Mourning Dress, needed public recognition. By the 1770s, he was one of the most Private Collection (Figure 4) fashionable and sought after portrait painters in London. After pushing crayon to its limits as a medium, although he was care of her three daughters. Her uncle Horace hoped that with youth and never to abandon it entirely, Cotes turned to oil painting as a means of beauty still on her side, ‘she may find as great a match and a younger developing his style in larger-scale works.